CORE WORD: Together For Educators, Related Service Providers and Parents PRESUMING COMPETENCE The act and practice of Presuming Competence has been referred to as the least dangerous assumption, (Anne Donnellan, 1984) and applying this ‘mindset’ may be highly beneficial when selecting and implementing an AAC system for the individuals with whom we work. As parents, educators, therapists, and others, we all want our students to be able to say, ‘whatever they want, however they want, whenever they want,’ and once a student is exposed to and provided with a robust communication system it can provide them with opportunities to learn and use a rich core and fringe vocabulary to express themselves using a wide array of communication functions. Communication is a human right and we are in a position to open up their access to words that have power. When we Presume Competence, we believe everyone can learn. WAYS WE CAN USE THE WORD SHARE AN IDEA: (e.g., We should all get together sometime.) EXPRESS AN OPINION: (e.g., He needs to get it together.) GOSSIP: (e.g., I heard they did not work well together on the project.) COMPLIMENT: (e.g., Your outfit and shoes go well together.) INSTRUCT: (e.g., First, mix the flour and baking powder together.) ROUTINES AND SCHEDULES Snack/mealtimes: Students/Adults can discuss their favorite food combinations. Adults can model on the student’s devices/low tech boards etc., foods they like to eat together. (e.g., I like to eat grapes and cheese together) 1 Circle: At the end of the day, adults can play “The More We Get Together” as a goodbye song before students pack up to go home. Adults can pause the song before “together” and have students fill in the blank using any mode of communication. PLAY Recess: During recess adults can make comments about students playing together and model on students’ devices. READING Here are some suggested books on YouTube that can assist in teaching the core word: Drawn Together by Minh Lê Read by Erin McCall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6WxovaT5P0&ab_channel=ErinMcCall It’s Great to Work Together by Jordan Collins Read by Storytime with Suzanne https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVvh1ABeDQ&ab_channel=Storytimewith Suzanne SOCIAL INTERACTIONS AND VIDEO MODELING Students can practice asking their friends if they would like to play. Adults can model on devices how to ask friends to play and show what playing together nicely with friends looks like with a social story. 2 SENSORY MOTOR Students can finger paint and mix paints together. Adults can assist adapt the activity and assist students as needed. VIDEOS, MUSIC, ANIMATED SHORTS The More We Get Together by Barefoot Books Singalong https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynlmvWAdCug&ab_channel=BarefootBoo ks Come Together by The Beatles (for older students) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oolpPmuK2I8&ab_channel=TheBeatles- Topic Happy Together by The Turtles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZEURntrQOg&ab_channel=CameronPosh We’re All In This Together by High School Musical Cast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DykVJl6wr_4&ab_channel=DisneyMusicVE VO STRUCTURED ACTIVITIES As an accompanying activity to It’s Great to Work Together, Students and adults can discuss ways to work together with friends. ART OR SCIENCE ACTIVITIES Students can see what happens when you put mentos and cola together. Adults can create activity specific boards for students to use to make comments on the activity or model on their devices. 3 WORD WALL: Create a WordWall and add ‘together’ to the list. READING and the Word Wall: Sound out the letters together. Have the students find the word on the AAC system. WRITING and the Word Wall: Using a pencil or alternative pencil, have students try to type the word on the keyboard or write the word together. For specific questions or more ideas regarding this core word Activity Sheet, please contact Abbie Duarte @ [email protected] Thank you! Abbie Duarte is a second-year speech-language pathology graduate student at San Francisco State University. She is specializing in augmentative and alternative communication through San Francisco State University’s federally funded Project Building Bridges. Through Project Building Bridges, Abbie has joined the Nika Project and is providing resources for individuals with complex communication needs both locally and across the globe. Thank you! 4 CORE WORD: Understand For Educators, Related Service Providers, and Parents PRESUMING COMPETENCE The act and practice of Presuming Competence has been referred to as the least dangerous assumption, (Anne Donnellan, 1984) and applying this ‘mindset’ may be highly beneficial when selecting and implementing an AAC system for the individuals with whom we work. As parents, educators, therapists, and others, we all want our students to be able to say, ‘whatever they want, however they want, whenever they want,’ and once a student is exposed to and provided with a robust communication system it can provide them with opportunities to learn and use a rich core and fringe vocabulary to express themselves using a wide array of communication functions. Communication is a human right and we are in a position to open up their access to words that have power. When we Presume Competence, we believe everyone can learn. WAYS WE CAN USE THE WORD REQUEST: (e.g., I want you to understand me. Understand this.) GIVE INFORMATION: (e.g., I don’t understand the lyrics of this song. I understand the game.) ASK QUESTIONS: (e.g., do you understand me? Can you help me understand this?). COMMENT: (e.g., I like that you understand this. This is easy/ hard to understand) PROTEST: (e.g., I can’t understand this. This is so hard to understand. You don’t understand me). CLARIFICATION: (e.g., I don’t understand you. Can you say that again? I can’t understand, can you say that again?) ROUTINES Academic activities in class: It is important to check for understanding when working with students with special needs. When giving directions in class, ask the students if they understand the steps/routines that they need to follow. When 5 teaching new concepts in class, ask the students if they understand what you are teaching them. Circle Time: It is a common activity to go over the schedule of the day in circle time. When going over the schedule, you can ask the students if they understand what comes after or before recess, or before the end of the day. Also, you can always start your activities (e.g., calendar, weather, etc.) by telling the students how important it is to understand these concepts. For example, you can say (e.g., For today we are going over the weather. It is important to understand the different kinds of weather we have in the city, etc.). Pre-Literacy activities in the classroom: before reading a book to the students, it’s common to go over pre-literacy concepts such as the title of the book, front/back of the book, etc. Teachers can always cover this area by letting them know the importance of understanding those concepts (e.g., here is the title, is it important to understand this because every single book has a name/title). Make sure teachers’ model this in the devices at the same time) Reading comprehension activities: after reading a story with the students or after independent reading (for those students who read independently), teachers can have a section called “I understand what I read”. In this section, teachers can ask the student to show their understanding by going over story grammar (asking all WH- questions). Make sure you model and use the word understand during this activity over and over. For example, you can say” “first we want to understand “who” who means the people in the story. Who knows who was in the story? Next, we want to understand “where”. “Where” means the place in the story, etc. Board Games at home or with friends: Before playing the game, read the rules and ask if everyone understands the game. Encourage the student(s) to answer with complete sentences (e.g., yes, I understand the rules of the game). Don’t forget to provide plenty of modeling. Clarifications: Encourage students to clarify when they don’t understand a concept teacher are teaching. For example, when teaching a concept, and you can see that the student is not grasping what you are teaching, teachers can model and say “Oh it seems that you don’t understand. If we don’t understand, we ask for help. If we don’t understand, we ask for repetition, etc.” You can do this throughout the school day in different activities. How-to videos: some younger adults enjoy watching how-to videos on YouTube. In these videos, students learn how to make things, practice new hobbies, or learn something new. How-to videos usually go step by step and for some concepts, it is important to understand each step before moving to the next one. For example, in the video on how to mix colors when painting, we need to 6 understand the primary colors and how we can mix them to create new colors. Model this activity and check if the students understand each step before moving to the next one. Here are some videos about this activity: Acrylic Painting Tips for Beginners-How to Mix Colors by Easy Painting Vered https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXAZ6b9y_Sw How To Mix Colors for Kids, Toddlers, and Preschoolers by Kids Corner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCMHw6NDJ0I PLAY Before playing with the students, make sure you go over the rules and instructions of each game and check for understanding.